past and present employers

[68c15]

the thread about Christmas bonuses got me to thinking. in that one I covered my current and also my favorite bosses. I feel compelled to talk about my previous one.

it was a shop which specialized in trucks. I was hired to work on light duty trucks only since I was a fish out of water with diesels and medium duty or bigger. day 3 he started sticking me with motorhomes and Burlington Northern rail road trucks (F800's and such).

the boss was what we in this field refer to as a "sea gull" boss. he would swoop in late, squawk a lot, s*it on everything, and then fly away. my hours were 9:00 to 6:00 but many, many times he would come to me at 4:00 and tell me this 5 hour job needs to get done today. I suffered through this for 3 years all the time asking to go to 8-5 so I could spend time with my family. it fell on deaf ears.

so many times I was, along with a majority of the shop treated like a mushroom. fed crap and kept in the dark. our incentive plan was to give the guy with the most billed hours a weekly bonus. it turned out to be a pair of Snap-On socks or 1 (repeat, ONE) ticket to the most expensive movie theater in town.

what are your best and worst bosses?

[Carne Frio]

I once had a boss, while I was working part time and student full time, that
was a complete jerk. He began to threaten some lay offs of full timers a few
weeks prior to Christmas. His car caught fire and was destroyed. A week later,
his wife's car got the same treatment. A very unhappy place to work, because
most of us could not afford not to have a job.

[68c15]

more info about Mr. Seagull. after I left he sold the place to a larger company and didn't even tell any employees. he is now delivering flowers while his wife sells wine for a grocery store. karma bit them both in the a55

[wv hillbilly]

in the 80s there was no work in this area. i traveled a little over 100 miles one way to va. for work where i operated heavy equipment.
the only problem was the weather. it could be nice here and stormy in va.
if i would drive down and the weather was to bad to work i would get 4 hours show up time. if i called and was told no work, i got 2 hours. the best company i ever worked for.
one other company i worked for the boss was great
the rest of my employment the forman/ boss has been jerks

[Plinked]

My last boss was my greatest inspiration to start my own business ( 30yrs ago )
This guy was so damn cheap that we would paint our work trucks with house paint and disposable brushes. I once told him we needed a new elec cord for one of our portable pumps ( cost at the time would have been about $2 ), he leaned back in his chair thought real hard and jumped up and told me to go look in the back of the yard as he rememberd seeing a old washing machine that someone had dumped and for me to cut off the cord on that and use it. Instead of buying tools we needed to do our job he told us to just go ask one of the mechanics at the yard we were working at and see if we could borrow what we needed. He once had me go with him on a Sunday to go look at a tanker a few hrs up the road and was shocked when I asked to be paid for my time that day ( 7 hrs ). So I figured if this idiot could run his own business so could I.

[Iron Eagle]

I worked at a place for 15 years, and I am still shocked that no one went postal there. It was awful! The place where I am working now is like heaven compared to the hell of that place. God sure is good.

[flintlock]

A long time back, in the mid 70's, I had a real beauty. Company vice president, and he and I didn't see eye to eye on anything. A few days before Christmas, there was a company Christmas party. As they handed out the bonus envelopes, I found a small bonus and a pink slip. Merry Christmas! But, the following week, when the owner came back from his holiday vacation, he called me back in, gave me a raise, and apologised for the idiot's behavior. When he finally retired, and the VP bought the place, I had no problem moving on.

[76Highboy]

My present boss is the greatest guy. He cares about people and he always says that if we ever need to talk to someone about anything, his door is always open. He says his greatest joy in life is seeing his employees achieve success. I work a minimum of 55 hours a week and I have never regretted it.

[Snakedriver]

Christmas bonuses are always nice, I understand the ebb & flow of the economy where sometimes a nice bonus isn't always possible. The best bosses I've had are the ones that showed their appreciaition of their employee's efforts to make the business a success. If a bonus wasn't in the works because of bad times for the business, a nice Christmas card from the boss expressing thanks and best wishes for a more prosperous year ahead made me feel just fine. I'm a pat-on-the-back guy who is motivated by appreciation for my work though, not everyone is the same.

[streetbob]

My job now (been there 4 yrs.) is the best one I have ever had. I work as a parts guy at a small motorcycle accessory store. My boss here has been the greatest boss, the 1st year I was there he told me around Christmas time to pick whatever Jacket and Chap I wanted in the place as a Christmas Bonus I picked about $600.00 retail set of leathers and he handed me a check for $500.00 and said Merry Christmas. The second Christmas time we picked up a Kel-Tec PF-9 for his 85 year old Father as a self defense gun and he couldn't rack the slide back (had a disease that drastically weakened his mussels), so when it came time for the bonus he gave me the pistol and $1,000.00. Last year he handed me a check for $1,500.00. I also at times go riding with him on store hours to rallys, benefits, and all kinds of functions. Plus I get everything in the store at cost including parts. I love my job!

[savage170]

For 26 years I worked for a guy who thought 120 hrs a week for peanuts was okay then I fired myself best move I ever made

[68c15]

another good thing about my current boss is he is getting close to retirement. he, along with a large majority of customers, want me to take over. been in busines for many years now. since 86 in this location, 12 years he was a block away from here. he owes nothing and does not use credit aside from parts purchases

[gdmoody]

I am 60 years old and can count my full time employers on one hand. I cannot really say anything bad about any of them except maybe the one I am working for now - the Post Office. The only thing I can really say about them is that they treat their employees like crap. The lazy workers that don't do crap are made into supervisors and the ones that work are given more and more to do.

I said in the bonus thread that I had never gotten a Christmas bonus. That is not true, as I was thinking about my past employers, I did remember one part time job, back in the early 70's, at an Amoco gas station. Even though I was only part time, the owner gave me a Christmas bonus of $100, which was a huge amount back then.

[IShootBack]

I went to work for a company whose sales were dropping and they counted on my experience and connections to help them out of the hole they were in. The year they hired me (started in October) their gross sales were less than $850K. That year I got a ham and $50 bucks for Christmas.

Next year nothing.

Part way through the second year, we were closing out the third quarter with close to $2.5 million in gross sales. After running the numbers a couple of times to make certain I was accurate. I spoke to the owner and was fairly pleased with my accomplishment of bringing in new business, branching into commercial work, and increasing sales to existing customers. This generated him a hefty profit. He felt otherwise. Got mad that I tracked the sales and expense reports. Denied a raise. Denied a bonus. Told me I was a huge dissappointment and he was considering letting me go. I gave him two weeks notice and had another job that afternoon.

[cpttango30]

My first was my stepdad until he screamed at me for not filling a propane tank when a motor-home was blocking the propane tank. I took my uniform shirt off and told him I quit.

Then I worked various job on farms and stuff. Then went to work in a local pizza parlor until a chick I worked with threw a pizza at me and I got fired because she had big boobs (Bosses words not mine). Then I went into the Army my second worst employer. came back and worked at a truck wash for a year before I quit to go active duty Army.

The Army was just one screw up after another. First I didn't get paid for 9 months, wasn't allowed to have any time to look into why I wasn't getting paid until I refused to go to work because the Army breached my contract by not paying me. Wouldn't you know within 24 hours I had 10 months pay in my bank account. Then I split from my wife and I was in the field 5 days a week for 10.5 months straight then spend 1 month solid at Fort Irwin for NTC. During that time my then ex went and signed the kids up for medicade and welfare so I got slapped with Tons of back child support and medical costs. Which I had been attempting to pay since she split. Then I reinlisted and was told that I would get stationed on the west coast. Got lied to and sent to the east coast. During the time I was at Fort Dix my ex moved the kids out of state and didn't tell me. I spent 8 months trying to track them down. Called the child support people in CA and was told that seeing as I was a dead beat father I didn't need to know where my kids were at. Even though they were taking 60% of my pay check every month. It was at Fort Dix that I finaly had had enough. I got accused by an Officer of stealing narcotics, I got wrote up for not having a car by the NCO I had asked to give me a ride to go pick up a K-5 blazer I had bought. I explained to him that I spent every last dime I had to get this truck and didn't have money to get a cab. He said sorry can't do it. So not only did he not give me a ride 30 miles to get my car he wrote me up and cost me $1k that I had saved up. I got hooked up with a gal from PA and her sisters boyfriend sold me an 84 Honda Prelude for $200 and I turned around drove it home and traded it in on a Hyundia Accent that I got screwed over on. Towards the end I had just given up I was close to getting out and didn't care anymore. Then they put me on Fat boy PT sent me and another solider to a weight counselor. Where the other solider a black female would get an hour and a half with the counselor and I would get 15 minutes of her telling me I was doing nothing right and that all I should be eating is salad with no dressing, no nothing.

Then I got out came to VA went to work for a company running a loader for a pipe crew. Then got put on a pan (Scraper) left that job for one closer to home paying $5 an hour more. That boss was a raciest dillhole. Who expected us to work 70 hours a week no matter what. Did nothing but scream at us for being lazy. I ended up getting fired from that job because I was unloaded and I didn't give right away to a loaded pan because my breaks went out and I couldn't stop. Oh yeah and the company would disconnect the rear breaks because breaks are for stopping and I should never stop.

Then I went to college and now I work at a High school as a computer tech.

My best boss was when I started in the school system at an elementary school. They helped me out were friendly and believed in me when I told them information. My principal and assistant principal were great along with all the teachers. I got to do my job and was asked to help out in other areas (That is the Fro picture I had) I could interact with the kids enough to like it and not so much that they got on my nerves. They supported me when I would bump head with my engineer.